The journey begins with a movie…

Ok; so you might expect a blog about a journey toward becoming a 3D artist to start with a reference to some big sci-fi or action film with lots of digital effects and such. Given the date I’m starting this, you might even think I’m going to go on and on about Avatar. Sorry to disappoint, but this has nothing to do with that.

My wife and I recently watched the movie “Julie & Julia”. I thought it was a great movie where Meryl Streep showed once again why she’s one of the most amazing actresses of our time. But what got me to thinking was a combination of the struggles that the two main characters faced.

Julia Child was told that she had no talent for cooking, that writing a massive cookbook was a bad idea, and that women didn’t want a complicated manual on cooking techniques, they just wanted something simple. It took her over 8 years to finally find someone who could see the genius in what she was trying to do.

The other character in the movie, Julie, likewise was at a point in her life where she was wondering “Is this all?” and decided to use a blog and a challenge to cook her way through “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a year to try to force herself to change her situation.

In some ways, I identify with both of those characters. For over 30 years I’ve been interested in computer graphics in one form or another. When I was a teenager, I pushed the poor TRS-80 computers in high school to create animations they weren’t designed to do. In college, I would sit for hours reviewing Siggraph videos and studying methods for generating computer models. And on and on.

Most recently, I’ve had the distinct honor to work very closely with my friends at Aery Soul (one of the premier artistic teams creating 3D models for the Poser and DAZ|Studio market). As I’ve helped them with non-artistic things, they’ve helped me with understanding all the work that goes on “behind the scenes” to make their creations.

So, as my wife and I talked about the coming year (2010) and the start of the next decade of the 21st century, we decided to take a page from Julie and start blogs about what we want to accomplish this year.

My goal is to have my very first 3D modelling product done by the time I reach my 45th birthday (12/04/2010). I’ll use this blog in two ways … one to chronicle my adventures in learning. And second as a motivator to myself to keep going on those days when I just don’t feel like it.

So, here we go … the next two weeks are like packing up the bags and getting ready for the trip. January 4th, 2010 I embark on a journey to finally reach my lifelong goal.